The Empress' New Clothes ....

Yup, we finally got Her Ladyship a new rug and a new halter. She looks so chuffed. She didn't like the smell of them when we first took them out to her. A carrot soon fixed that. She was happy enough to let the old person and the daughter put it on her and do up the straps. Then she was miffed that no carrot was forthcoming to reward her for just standing there.

Where she stands is where she can see everything from all angles, the road, the house (there might be a carrot) and the stable area out the back. She can see our comings and goings, even pegging out the clothesline and the boys when they go out and play. She sincerely believes it is her duty to watch them. She will stand for hours, not grazing, not moving, maybe swishing a fly with her tail. She dozes off. Even if we go out in the car she does not move.

It is somewhat neurotic behaviour, partly having been a stable horse since she was very young and partly because she has no other equine company.

We were lucky, as the horse equipment shop was having a sale at the time we go it, and it was quite inexpensive. Her name is Blue Bell Babe, so a blue rug is quite fitting.

Work has been much the same, although I have hardly seen the Boss for the past two weeks. He has been off on personal matters for one week and doing work related things off Campus the other week. I have been to classes but skipped one. Lucky for me that I did, as there has been a virus going around the IT section computers that kills USB sticks. All my classwork is on mine, and I have not had enough sense to have backed it up recently. When they ran mine through the detector program, it said mine was clear, yet everyone else in the class had it. I was away for one class and that was when they got it. Still, it gave them a closer time period for the onset of the virus and now they are able to treat it. Actually, I think it might have been a Trojan. Creepy. The weird thing about it all, was that until I had my USB stick checked, I felt as though I had some disease. Not to a great extent, just a bit of a grubby feeling. lol.

I get my sewing machine back tomorrow, and I have been madly doing the last of the cleaning up. There are still large boxes to check what goodies they contain, but I have a feeling most of the stuff is junk we can toss. The recycle bin has been full every fortnight it has gone out. I still have things that I am working on that need a temporary home till they are finished. But so much has been done that I don't mind having to wait a couple of weeks to get the other storage units for them.

Before I moved here, I salvaged about 10 shoe boxes and covered them with Contac. I filled them with ornaments and glasswear. Now there are some trades in them, stuff I have received in trade for stuff I have made and sent to other people. So those will have to be rehoused to so I can repack my ornaments and glasswear. We moved here in September 2003 and so it will be over five years when we leave at the end this year.

It is a lovely location and I would have loved to have lived here longer, but the place is not maintained by the "Landlord" because eventually the place will be bulldozed to make way for a highway. They have been talking about this highway for over 20 years, so the locals tell me, so whenever it will be. The place is also full of termites and may fall down before it is bulldozed. We have asked repeatedly for work to be done - basic maintenance and it is never done, so we have little choice but to move on.

So that is all for just now ....